Justice denied

Published: Friday, January 11, 2013 at 08:00 AM.

Within hours of the swearing in of the 113th Congress, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., introduced what is now designated as House Resolution 129, known in Washington as the return to Glass-Steagall bill. It was that Franklin Roosevelt-backed legislation in 1932 that returned chartered banking to non-speculation stability after nationwide reorganization, making possible nation-building long-term capital investment, and classing as criminal activity (i.e., Ponzi schemes) what today are called “financial instruments.”

For 65 years — until its 1999 Wall Street-engineered demise and use of NAFTA-type “free trade agreements” that stamped out whole swaths of domestic production — we had an economy vectored for the future as exemplified by a cascading series of industry-building technologies fueled by the fruits of our space program, even as the lights were being turned off there.

Had Congress listened to the majority of Americans who adamantly demanded they not “bail out” Wall Street’s speculative takeover and collapse of what is now effectively its private banking system, and instead reinstated the Glass-Steagall standard, there would be $30 trillion more in the Treasury and Federal Reserve. That amount (or more) if used to promote the “general welfare” by funding high-speed rail, the North American Water and Power Alliance to create 24 million acres of irrigated farmland, and a space program Kennedy would be proud of, would be propelling us through a much different future than what we are staring at now.

Instead of the phony Wall Street-created “fiscal cliff” debate, it is time to bring Wall Street to justice, and justice to the economy. Now is the time to immediately enact H.R. 129, before we run out of time.

BRUCE TODD Panama City Beach

Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published
without permission. Links are encouraged.

Within hours of the swearing in of the 113th Congress, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., introduced what is now designated as House Resolution 129, known in Washington as the return to Glass-Steagall bill. It was that Franklin Roosevelt-backed legislation in 1932 that returned chartered banking to non-speculation stability after nationwide reorganization, making possible nation-building long-term capital investment, and classing as criminal activity (i.e., Ponzi schemes) what today are called “financial instruments.”

For 65 years — until its 1999 Wall Street-engineered demise and use of NAFTA-type “free trade agreements” that stamped out whole swaths of domestic production — we had an economy vectored for the future as exemplified by a cascading series of industry-building technologies fueled by the fruits of our space program, even as the lights were being turned off there.

Had Congress listened to the majority of Americans who adamantly demanded they not “bail out” Wall Street’s speculative takeover and collapse of what is now effectively its private banking system, and instead reinstated the Glass-Steagall standard, there would be $30 trillion more in the Treasury and Federal Reserve. That amount (or more) if used to promote the “general welfare” by funding high-speed rail, the North American Water and Power Alliance to create 24 million acres of irrigated farmland, and a space program Kennedy would be proud of, would be propelling us through a much different future than what we are staring at now.

Instead of the phony Wall Street-created “fiscal cliff” debate, it is time to bring Wall Street to justice, and justice to the economy. Now is the time to immediately enact H.R. 129, before we run out of time.